Method and apparatus for content protection in wi-fi direct network

ABSTRACT

A method of performing communication between a first device and a second device by using a Wi-Fi direct scheme is provided. The method may include receiving, by the first device, information on relating to a content protection capability of the second device in during a device discovery procedure; and determining, by the first device, whether to perform a connection setup procedure with the second device based on the received information on relating to the content protection capability of the second device.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application is a National Stage of International Application No.PCT/KR2011/010067 filed Dec. 23, 2011, and claims priority from U.S.Provisional Application No. 61/427,156 filed Dec. 24, 2010, thedisclosure of which is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.

BACKGROUND

1. Field

Apparatuses and methods in accordance with exemplary embodiments relateto a method and device for protecting content in a Wi-Fi directcommunication scheme.

2. Description of the Related Art

-   -   A Wi-Fi direct communication scheme uses a network arrangement        of participating devices where connection is by a peer-to peer        scheme between the devices. When using the Wi-Fi direct        communication scheme, the Wi-Fi devices do not necessitate        connection to, the use of, or participation in a home network,        an office network, or a hot spot network. That is, a Wi-Fi        direct communication scheme provides direct connection between        two devices without the need for any form of an additional        individual router, hub, gate, etc. outside the two connecting        devices in order to facilitate transmissions.

FIG. 1 illustrates a related art Wi-Fi direct communication scheme.

In FIG. 1, a digital versatile disk (DVD) player 101 uses the Wi-Fidirect communication scheme to transmit content 104 such as music,photos, and moving images to a display devices, for example, to atelevision (TV) TV1 102 or a TV2 103 which is a display device.

The DVD player 101 may be another device that stores a content, such asBlue-ray player, an MP3 player, a personal computer, personal digitalassistant, a mobile device, and a simple storage medium.

The TV1 102 or the TV2 103 may be another device that displays contentto a user, such as a monitor and a speaker.

The content 104 may be an original work of authorship such as music, aphoto, and a moving image that may be content protected by a copyright.

The Wi-Fi direct (P2P) scheme is not a standard that has been suggestedin consideration of a display device. Rather the Wi-Fi direct scheme isa standard that has been suggested on the basis of connectivity betweendevices. Accordingly, the Wi-Fi direct scheme does not recognize whethera device supports content protection before setting connection betweendevices.

For example, in the Wi-Fi direct scheme, it is not possible for the DVDplayer 101 to recognize whether each TV supports content protectionbefore setting up a connection with the TV1 102 and the TV2 103 asdepicted in FIG. 1. According to one exemplary embodiment, TV1 102 maybe a device that does not supports content protection, while TV2 103 maybe a device that does supports content protection. In such anembodiment, if the DVD player 101 connects to the TV1 102 through theWi-Fi direct scheme and sends the content 104 protected by the copyrightto TV1 102 with the instructions for the content to be displayed, amessage indicating that the content cannot be replayed on TV1 102 willinstead be displayed due to the lack of support for the specific contentprotection. Thus, when the user desires to replay the content 104through the DVD player 101, the user may be inconvenienced due to thelost time and energy exerted in the attempt to connect and display thecontent on TV1 and then the additional wait for the connection betweenthe DVD player 101 and the TV2 103 to occur and then replay the content.

It is also worth noting that even though the TV1 102 does not supportcontent protection and thus cannot replay the content 104, power andtime is still consumed when connecting with the DVD player 101.

SUMMARY

One or more exemplary embodiments provide a method for receivinginformation relating to whether a device supports content protectionduring a device discovery procedure of searching for a surroundingdevice when performing communication between display devices accordingto a Wi-Fi direct scheme in order to provide a communication scheme forperforming an efficient Wi-Fi direct communication scheme betweendisplay devices.

According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided amethod of performing communication between a first device and a seconddevice by using a Wi-Fi direct scheme, the method including: receivinginformation relating to a content protection capability of the seconddevice during a device discovery procedure; and determining whether toperform a connection setup procedure with the second device based on thereceived information relating to the content protection capability.

The receiving of the information relating to the content protectioncapability of the second device may include receiving a probe responsemessage including the information relating to the content protectioncapability.

The method may further include: transmitting information relating to acontent protection capability of the first device to the second device,wherein the information the content protection capability of the seconddevice is received in response to the transmitted information relatingto the content protection capability of the first device.

The transmitting of the information relating to the content protectioncapability of the first device may include transmitting a probe requestmessage including the information relating to the content protectioncapability.

The information relating to the content protection capability may beincluded in a Wi-Fi Display Information Element (WFD IE).

The information relating to the content protection capability may beincluded in a Wi-Fi Display (WFD) Device Information Field within theWFD IE.

The information relating to the content protection capability mayindicate whether a high-definition content protection 2.0 (HDCP 2.0) issupported.

According to an aspect of another exemplary embodiment, there isprovided a device for performing communication using a Wi-Fi directscheme, including: a receiver configured to receive information relatingto a content protection capability of a second device in a devicediscovery procedure; and a determination processor configured todetermine whether to perform a connection setup procedure with thesecond device based on the received information relating to the contentprotection capability.

The receiver may be configured to receive a probe response messageincluding the information relating to the content protection capability.

The device may further include: a transmitter configured to transmitinformation relating to a content protection capability of the device tothe second device, wherein the information relating to the contentprotection capability of the second device is received in response tothe transmitted information relating to the content protectioncapability of the device.

The transmitter may transmit a probe request message including theinformation relating to the content protection capability.

The information relating to the content protection capability may beincluded in a Wi-Fi Display Information Element (WFD IE).

The information relating to the content protection capability may beincluded in a Wi-Fi Display (WFD) Device Information Field within theWFD IE.

The information relating to the content protection capability mayindicate whether a high-definition content protection 2.0 (HDCP 2.0) issupported.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects will become more apparent by describing indetail exemplary embodiments with reference to the attached drawings inwhich:

FIG. 1 is a diagram illustrating a related art Wi-Fi directcommunication scheme;

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a device discovery procedure of afirst device according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a device discovery procedure of afirst device according to another exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a first device anda second device according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a table illustrating a Wi-Fi display (WFD) information element(IE) according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 6 is a table illustrating a general format of a WFD subelementaccording to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 7 is a table illustrating a WFD subelement ID according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 8 is a table illustrating a WFD device information subelementaccording to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 9 is a table illustrating a WFD device information field accordingto an exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 10 is a signal flowchart of a WFD communication according to anexemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

One or more exemplary embodiments will now be described more fully withreference to the accompanying drawings, in which exemplary embodimentsare shown. Like reference numerals in the drawings denote like elements,and thus their description will be omitted. The size of each componentof drawings may be exaggerated for clarity of description.

FIG. 2 is a flowchart illustrating a device discovery procedure of afirst device according to an exemplary embodiment.

The device discovery procedure is a procedure for not only finding asurrounding device for communication, but is also a procedure thatincludes searching for a device that supports a Wi-Fi direct schemeamong devices existing around another device in order for the twodevices to connect. Further, when there is a device that supports aWi-Fi direct scheme, information on each device may be received.

However, the related art Wi-Fi direct (P2P) scheme is not a standardthat has been suggested for consideration with use of a display device,because of the lack of any procedure for appropriately protectingcontent in the device discovery procedure.

Thus, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, in operation 201, afirst device receives information regarding the content protectioncapability of a second device from the second device during the devicediscovery procedure.

The information relating to the content protection capability isinformation about whether the device supports content protection.

The information relating to the content protection capability of thesecond device received from the second device may be included in a proberesponse message. The probe response message is a message containingreceiving device information as required by the device discoveryprocedure of the Wi-Fi direct communication scheme.

Further, in accordance with an exemplary embodiment, the informationrelating to the content protection capability may be included in theWi-Fi display information element (WFD IE). The WFD IE will be describedlater in detail with reference to FIG. 5.

Furthermore, the information relating to the content protectioncapability may be included in the WFD information field within the WFDIE. The WFD information field will be described later in detail withreference to FIG. 8.

According to an exemplary embodiment, the information relating to thecontent protection capability may be information indicating whether thesecond device supports high definition content protection 2.0(High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection HDCP 2.0).

The HDCP is a copyright protection technology for encrypting a paththrough which digital signals are transmitted and received from a movingimage replay device to a display device. HDCP prevents any unauthorizedcopying of content, and accordingly is a standard designed to protectthe integrity of digital content.

In operation 202, it is determined whether the first device may performa connection setup procedure with the second device based on informationrelating to the content protection capability of the second devicereceived in operation 201.

That is, the first device determines whether the second device supportscontent protection by the information received from the second device,and determines whether to perform a connection setup procedure with thesecond device.

Various methods may be used to determine whether to perform theconnection setup procedure. For example, when there are a plurality ofdevices that support a Wi-Fi direct communication scheme, information onwhether to perform a connection setup with another device may bedetermined by and received from the user after the user is providedcompatible devices that may be done by displaying the plurality ofdevices that support content protection on the first device.

According to another exemplary embodiment, a connection setup may be setto be automatically performed according to a priority that is set in thefirst device.

Further, if there is only one device that supports the Wi-Fi directcommunication scheme, the device may be set to display whether thedevice supports content protection before performing the connectionsetup.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart illustrating a device discovery procedure of afirst device according to another exemplary embodiment.

In the Wi-Fi direct scheme, the device that is determined to be thedevice that operates as an access point (AP), or the device thatoperates as a station, may be determined after the connection setupprocedure. Thus, the role of each device may not be determined duringthe device discover procedure. Accordingly, the second device may needthe information of the first device after the connection setupprocedure, and therefore the second device receives the information ofthe first device.

In operation 301, the first device transmits information relating to thecontent protection capability of the first device to the second device.

The information relating to the content protection capabilitytransmitted by the first device to the second device may be included ina probe request message.

The probe request message is a message containing transmitting deviceinformation in the device discovery procedure of the Wi-Fi directcommunication scheme.

The information relating to the content protection capability may beincluded in WFD IE.

The information relating to the content protection capability may beincluded in the WFD device information field within the WFD IE.

The information relating to the content protection capability may beinformation indicating whether HDCP 2.0 is supported.

In operation 302, the first device receives information relating to thecontent protection capability from the second device.

In operation 303, the first device determines whether to set upconnection with the second device based on the information relating tothe content protection capability of the second device. The connectionsetup may be performed in various schemes as was described withreference to FIG. 2.

Further, the second device may also determine whether to set upconnection with the first device based on the information relating tothe content protection capability received from the first device. Theconnection set up may be determined based on a combination of both thefirst and second devices' information on their content protectioncapability.

FIG. 4 is a block diagram illustrating a structure of a first device anda second device according to an exemplary embodiment.

The transmitter 411 of the first device 410 transmits informationrelating to the content protection capability of the first device to thesecond device. As illustrated in FIG. 3, the information related to thecontent protection capability of the first device 410 may be included inthe probe request message, WFD IE, and more specifically, it may beincluded in the WFD device information field of the WFD IE.

A receiver 412 of the first device 410 receives information related withthe content protection capability of the second device 420 from thesecond device.

The determination processor 413 of the first device 410 determineswhether to perform a connection setup procedure with the second device420 based on the information related with the content protectioncapability of the second device which has been received by the receiverof the first device 410 from the transmitter 421 of the second device420.

The transmitter of the second device 420 transmits the informationrelated with the content protection capability of the second device 420to the first device 410.

The receiver 422 of the second device 420 receives information relatedwith the content protection capability of the first device 410 from thetransmitter 411 of the first device 410.

A determination processor 423 of the second device determines whether toperform a connection setup procedure with the first device 410 based oninformation related with the content protection capability of the firstdevice 410 received from the transmitter 411 of the first device 410.

FIG. 5 is a table illustrating a Wi-Fi display (WFD) information element(IE) according to an exemplary embodiment.

Here, WFD is a communication scheme, and refers to a scheme wherecommunication is performed between display devices based on Wi-Fi directstandard.

WFD IE represents a format of a frame that receives basic informationsuch as a device type and state. The probe request frame or proberesponse frame is also written according to the format of the WFD IE.

In the illustrated example, WFD IE includes Element ID, Length, OUI, OUIType, and WFD Subelements. Respective sizes of Element ID, Length, OUI,and OUI TYPE fields are 1, 1, 3 and 1 octets, where an octet consists ofeight bits, and the size of WFD Subelements is a variable number ofbits.

Element ID field is a field that is used when a vendor desires to makefunctions that are not defined in IEEE 802.11 standard, and Length fielddenotes the entire length of WFD IE. For example, as discussed below,FIG. 7 illustrates of different identifiers this field could be set toin order to reference the noted element which may be outside the definedIEEE 802.11 standard.

OUI field is an abbreviation of Organization Unique Identifier andrepresents a unique identifier defined to distinguish each vendor, andOUI Type field represents the version of WFD IE.

The content written in the WFD IE may not be sufficient for the WFD

Subelement field, and thus the points indicating detailed deviceinformation are included in the WFD Subelement field. The pointsincluded in the WFD Subelement field will be described in detail withreference to FIG. 6.

Some of the WFD IE fields of one or more exemplary embodiments may beomitted.

FIG. 6 is a table illustrating a general format of a WFD Subelementaccording to an exemplary embodiment.

Here, in FIG. 6, the WFD Subelement includes Subelement ID, Length, andSubelements body fields. Sizes of Subelement ID and Length fields arerespectively 1 octet, and the size of the Subelement body field isvariable.

The Subelement ID of an exemplary embodiment represents a type of theWFD Subelement, which will be described later in detail with referenceto FIG. 7.

The Length field of an exemplary embodiment represents the entire lengthof the WFD Subelement.

The Subelements body field of an exemplary embodiment shows specificpoints of the Subelement.

Some of the WFD Subelements may be omitted.

FIG. 7 is a table illustrating a WFD subelement ID according to anexemplary embodiment.

The WFD subelement ID may be set to identify the variable length body asWFD Device Information of an exemplary embodiment which refers toinformation on WFD device. In one or more exemplary embodiments, thecontent protection capability of a device intended to be acquired beforesetting up connection is written on the WFD Subelement of the WFD DeviceInformation type, which will be described in detail with reference toFIG. 8.

Status of an exemplary embodiment represents status information of thedevice.

Associated BSSID of an exemplary embodiment represents an identifierthat identifies a basic service area in 802.11.

Display EDID of an exemplary embodiment represents a type of data fortransmitting display information of a device.

Coupled Sink Information of an exemplary embodiment representsconnection with another device.

H.264 Codec, LPCM Codec, AAC Codec, Dolby Digital Codec, and DTS Codecof an exemplary embodiment show information related to Codec. Each Codecis a well-known standard in the art and thus detailed description oneach Codec is omitted here.

Transport Capability, 3D Video Capability, Local IP Address, and ControlSignaling Capabilities of an exemplary embodiment show the capabilityand address of the device, and the detailed description thereof isomitted here.

Furthermore, the information related with content protection capabilitymay be included in the Subelement ID by adding Content ProtectionCapability.

Some of Subelement IDs may be omitted.

FIG. 8 is a table illustrating information that may be included in a WFDdevice information Subelement according to an exemplary embodiment.

In accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments, when theSubelement ID field is one (1) as noted in FIG. 7, the Subelement aboutWFD Device Information is included. Here, the content related withdevice information is displayed in WFD device information in a bitmapformat. The details are described with reference to FIG. 8.

WFD Device Maximum Throughput shows the maximum average throughput ofthe device.

FIG. 9 is a table illustrating different possible values that could befound in a WFD device information field according to an exemplaryembodiment.

WFD device information field may be disclosed in a bitmap form.

First and second bits of WFD device information field (bits 0 and 1) ofan exemplary embodiment indicate a WFD source, a WFD sink, a primarysink device or a secondary sink device.

A third bit of WFD device information field (bit 2) of an exemplaryembodiment indicates whether a secondary sink operation is supported.

Fourth and fifth bits of WFD device information field (bits 3 and 4) ofan exemplary embodiment indicate a paring state of the current deviceand whether paring is possible.

A sixth bit of WFD device information field (bit 5) of an exemplaryembodiment indicates whether a WFD service discovery procedure issupported.

A seventh bit of WFD device information field (bit 6) of an exemplaryembodiment indicates a connection scheme of the device. That is, theseventh bit indicates whether the device supports a Wi-Fi direct scheme,i.e., P2P scheme, or a tunneled direct link setup (TDLS) scheme. TheTDLS scheme is not the Wi-Fi direct scheme, and is a scheme of wirelesscommunication where communication is performed through an AP.

An eighth bit of WFD device information field (bit 7) of an exemplaryembodiment indicates information on content protection capability of thedevice. As illustrated in FIG. 7, the content protection capability maybe defined in the Subelement ID and the points that display the contentprotection capability may be added, and as illustrated in FIG. 9,information related to the content protection capability of the devicemay be indicated within the device information Subelement.

The content protection capability of an exemplary embodiment may beinformation indicating whether HDCP 2.0 is supported.

FIG. 10 is a signal flowchart of a WFD communication according to anexemplary embodiment.

A probe request message 1002 and a probe response message 1003 areexchanged during a device discovery procedure 1001 between a sourcedevice 1012 and a sink device 1013. Information related to the contentprotection capability of the device may be included in the probe requestmessage 1002 and the probe response message 1003, and thus informationrelated to the content protection capability may be exchanged betweenthe source device 1012 and the sink device 1013.

In accordance with one or more exemplary embodiments, the servicediscovery procedure 1004 is optional, and whether the procedure is to beperformed is determined according to whether the device supports thecontent protection capability as described with reference to FIG. 9.When the service discovery procedure 1004 is performed, the informationrelated with the content protection capability may be exchanged at theservice discovery procedure 1004.

The information related with the content protection capability of thedevice is exchanged before the connection setup procedure 1005, andinformation related with the content protection capability of thedevices is displayed to users 1011 and 1014 of respective devices. Theuser may select the device with which a connection setup procedure is tobe performed based on information related with the content protectionperformance of the displayed device.

After the information related with the content protection capability isexchanged, the connection setup procedure 1005 is performed with thedevice selected by the user's input, and thereafter a capabilitynegotiation procedure 1006 is performed. In the capability negotiationprocedure 1006, the device that is to play a role of an access point(AP) and a station is determined as in a general Wi-Fi direct scheme.Furthermore, information related with the content protection capabilitymay be set to be exchanged in the capability negotiation procedure.

One or more exemplary embodiments can also be embodied as computerreadable codes on a computer readable recording medium. The computerreadable recording medium is any data storage device that can store datawhich can be thereafter read by a computer system. Examples of thecomputer readable recording medium include read-only memory (ROM),random-access memory (RAM), CD-ROMs, magnetic tapes, floppy disks,optical data storage devices, etc. The computer readable recordingmedium can also be distributed over network coupled computer systems sothat the computer readable code is stored and executed in a distributedfashion.

While exemplary embodiments have been shown and described with referenceto exemplary embodiments thereof, it will be understood by those ofordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and details maybe made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of theinventive concept as defined by the following claims.

1. A method of performing communication between a first device and a second device by using a Wi-Fi direct scheme, the method comprising: receiving, by the first device, information relating to a content protection capability of the second device during a device discovery procedure; and determining, by the first device, whether to perform a connection setup procedure with the second device based on the received information relating to the content protection capability of the second device.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the receiving the information related to the content protection capability of the second device comprises receiving a probe response message including the information relating to the content protection capability.
 3. The method of claim 1, further comprising: transmitting, from the first device, information relating to a content protection capability of the first device to the second device, wherein the information relating to the content protection capability of the second device is received in response to the transmitted information relating to the content protection capability of the first device.
 4. The method of claim 3, wherein the transmitting the information relating to the content protection capability of the first device comprises transmitting a probe request message including the information related to the content protection capability of the first device.
 5. The method of claim 1, wherein the information relating to the content protection capability is included in a Wi-Fi Display Information Element (WFD IE).
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein the information relating to the content protection capability is included in a Wi-Fi Display (WFD) Device Information Field within the WFD IE.
 7. The method of claim 1, wherein the information relating to the content protection capability indicates whether a high-definition content protection 2.0 (HDCP 2.0) is supported.
 8. A device for performing communication using a Wi-Fi direct scheme, the device comprising: a receiver configured to receives information relating to a content protection capability of a second device in a device discovery procedure; and a determination processor configured to determine whether to perform a connection setup procedure with the second device based on the received information relating to the content protection capability.
 9. The device of claim 8, wherein the receiver is further configured to receive a probe response message including the information relating to the content protection capability.
 10. The device of claim 8, further comprising: a transmitter configured to transmit information relating to a content protection capability of the device to the second device, wherein the information relating to the content protection capability of the second device is received in response to the transmitted information relating to the content protection capability of the device.
 11. The device of claim 10, wherein the transmitter is further configured to transmit a probe request message including the information relating to the content protection capability.
 12. The device of claim 8, the information relating to the content protection capability is included in a Wi-Fi Display Information Element (WFD IE).
 13. The device of claim 12, wherein the information relating to the content protection capability is included in a Wi-Fi Display (WFD) Device Information Field within the WFD IE.
 14. The device of claim 8, wherein the information relating to the content protection capability indicates whether a high-definition content protection 2.0 (HDCP 2.0) is supported.
 15. A computer-readable recording medium having recorded a program for implementing a method disclosed claim
 1. 16. A method of performing communication between a first device and a second device in accordance with a Wi-Fi Direct standard, the method comprising: transmitting from the first device to the second device a data frame comprising a field containing content protection capability information relating to a first device.
 17. The method of the claim 16, wherein the data frame is in a Wi-Fi Display Information Element (WFD IE) frame format.
 18. The method of the claim 17, wherein the content protection capability information relating to the first device is in a Wi-Fi Display (WFD) Device Information Field as defined by the WFD IE frame format.
 19. The method of the claim 16, wherein the data frame is configured to be received at a second device prior to a connection setup procedure with the first device, and wherein the second device is configured to determine whether to connect to the first device based on the received data frame. 